


If My Heart Was A Compass, You'd Be North

by kjstark



Series: Football RPF one-shots [8]
Category: Football RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Normal Life, F/F, Gen, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2015-08-31
Packaged: 2018-04-18 04:56:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4692875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kjstark/pseuds/kjstark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because romantic soulmates was a whole different deal. A name or more on either or both of your wrists and your wrists alone would appear in ages between 18 and 25. Any name in any language that was bound to you and you to them. It seemed like a pretty easy concept.</p>
            </blockquote>





	If My Heart Was A Compass, You'd Be North

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Bang for A Buck (But We Were Never Good at Clichés)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1727576) by [zhenger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zhenger/pseuds/zhenger). 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here I come again with another series that really shouldn't be written by me. Every fandom deserves a Soulmates!AU, and Neyscar surely does too.

Neymar didn’t expect much from life when he turned 21. He was a college drop-out, average-smart guy, moreno with olive eyes and a fixed smile. He had a place to crash dead in, five blue jeans, and his own pair of feet to walk. He had an old guitar and three Barça jerseys. He had what he needed, what he wanted.

He had friends he loved dearly, platonic soulmates carved in his back. Which he figured was the greatest gift life could’ve given him.

Because romantic soulmates was a whole different deal. A name or more on either or both of your wrists and your wrists alone would appear in ages between 18 and 25. Any name in any language that was bound to you and you to them. It seemed like a pretty easy concept.

But with like everything in humanity, in reality it was more complicated than that. A sudden tattoo mark became one’s life or one’s doom. There were sides, pro and against, just like with everything. There were several studies that proved finding one’s soulmate or soulmates increased the activity in almost every working area of the brain, demonstrating that it was the primary way for human kind to reach its peak in evolution. However, there were also ratings that showed that 25% of human population never got a romantic soulmate mark. 15% of that 25% went through depression and 10% were content with having no mark.

The whole concept evolved as so did society. When once it was almost considered a magical event, it is now known to be a biological process, like puberty or menopause.

Along with that evolution came marketing, of course. All kinds of books, TV shows, movies, and even porn, revolved around the epic moment when you’d meet your soulmate or soulmates. Soaps about the journey of looking for your soulmates even to the ends of the earth. And Neymar even remembers watching a thriller once with a woman that kept getting names around her wrist until they started rolling all up her arm.

He didn’t really go head-over-heels around the whole idea. Somewhere in between his fifteen he kinda became convinced of the idea he was aromantic. He wasn't, completely, but he nursed the idea sometimes.

When he met Marcelo on his last year of high school and saw his name freshly written on the back of his left shoulder, he was thrilled. When Dani’s name appeared on his right shoulder the following year, he felt utterly complete.

Now, platonic soulmates markings were a bit of a more realistic concept. You’d get them at any point of your life, anytime you’d nurture a relationship with one or more friends and they could disappear when the friendship goes mistreated. It was a changing process and it was affected by your own choices. He liked that.

Neymar looked at some magazine that claimed they ‘knew ten ways to exploit sex with your soulmate to make it better!’ and snorted. Like having a soulmate would magically make sex better than with a regular someone. _‘I might as well just buy it and apply it to my own partners, this is ridiculous,’_ he thought to himself but he didn’t want to waste money on something he found stupid so he just set the magazine down and carried on into the store right next to the kiosk.

“Hmm, hey?” Neymar called when he reach the counter. A black woman with big curly hair came out from the back room. “Hi, yeah, I’m here to pick up Daniel Alves’ package?”

“Are you Marcelo?” she asked.

“Ugh, god, no,” he joked. “I’m Neymar, the other owner.”

“Oh, yeah, yeah. He said there were three of you,” she waved her hand and went back inside. Neymar looked at his digital watch and minutes later the woman came back. “There you go, he already paid me,” she added, with a bright smile. Neymar smiled back and grabbed the heavy box.

He was reaching the bus stop when his phone vibrated on his pocket. He moved the box to one of his arms so he could use the other to put the phone on his shoulder and press it against his ear.

“— you’re not painting these walls white, Celo, or so help me God—“

“Hello?” Neymar laughed softly at the speaker.

“Hm, yeah. Crawl out from Whatever Her Name Was’ bed and get your ass here, we need you,” Dani asked, and Neymar rolled his eyes.

“I crawled from _Bruna_ ’s bed like three hours ago. I’m picking up your shit, ass,” he said, with a hint of tenderness.

“You mean, _our s_ hit,” he corrected. Neymar rolled his eyes even harder. “Alright, we’re waiting here for you. Come quickly, I’m outnumbered,” he added, whispering before hanging up.

When Neymar arrived he was surprised to see Dani and Marcelo engaging in what looked like a heated discussion through the window. Danilo came out of the shop, making a pained expression. “Good luck with that,” he said, bumping his fist against Neymar’s as a hello. Danilo was a friend who lived up in the building, came to offer some lemonade and ask Dani for a job, any kind of job.

Last week they had agreed Danilo was going to help them paint the walls outside.

“Weren’t you working on the walls today? We need to make this place look nice, man,” Neymar said, looking at him and then back at his friends.

“Yeah, but you guys didn’t decide what color it was,” _Oh._

Neymar made an apologetic expression and went in.

“Ok, what happened?” he asked, quietly.

“He wants to paint the walls white and write fucking ‘Hala Madrid y nada más’ on top of the door,” Dani shot as soon as Neymar got in.

“I do not—“

“Do so—“

“—Want to write ‘Hala Madrid y nada más’. He’s just associating a fucking _color_ with where my alliances lie,”

“Which is Real Madrid,”

“Bet your ass,”

“Ok, seriously? We’re opening today and you guys want to fight over this?” Neymar whined at his best friends. “How about we just go for a little light yellow?” He offered. Dani and Marcelo slowly nodded, liking the idea.

“I’ll go tell Danilo to come later, then,” Dani said and Marcelo went to the back room and came back with three glasses of…orange juice.

“Really?” Neymar raised one long eyebrow. Marcelo shrugged as they waited for Dani to come back.

“What’s that?”

“We’re toasting. Because we’re damn fine businessmen and we’re gonna be rich as fuck,” Marcelo said, solemnly raising his glass.

“Shouldn’t we do this with champagne?” Dani asked, laughing.

“Mmm, I _did_ say we’re not rich yet,” they all crack a laugh and toast all messy. Marcelo’s glass clicks against Neymar’s a little too hard that it spills juice onto his uniform shirt. “Uh, shit,” Marcelo curses, wiping juice off his mouth as Neymar looks down to his little mess.

“It’s fine,” he says as he tries to wipe it off with his right hand. Neymar raises the glass with his free hand right in front of Marcelo’s face and he catches a glimpse of a blur.

“What’s that?” He whispers and Neymar stops looking at his shirt to look at his wrist instead. White traces of skin start to take form from one side to the other, then it goes bright red, then purple and finally black.

Dani reaches out to touch it with his thumb, almost in trance.

“Ow!” Neymar flinches, pained. Hugging onto his wrist, he shots a glare at Dani. Dani shows his open hand as if to apologize and Marcelo looks at Neymar expectantly. His breath catches up his throat as he moves his hand away from his chest.

 _‘Emboaba’_ is freshly writing above his veins.

Dani and Marcelo looking back at him with open eyes is the last thing he sees.

* * *

 

Oscar's smile was lopsided. He had a degree in Computer Programming and a proud elite membership card in the closest comic book store to his condo. Dark brown hair and pale skin, Oscar was the definition of uninteresting, but he wasn't entirely miserable about it. At least the myopia was gone and he didn't have to wear glasses anymore.

Ludy on the other hand was drop-dead gorgeous. Asian descended and pouty-lips. She was gifted with a big rack and also, was dating his sister.

"Shut up!" He yelled at her.

"Omelets aren't supposed to look green," she giggled.

"I was trying to be fancy!" He yelled but she just laughed louder. He finished cutting the slices of chocolate as Ludy poured her mix into the cupcake containers. "Thanks for helping me out with these, by the way," he thanked her, with a smile. Ludy gave him tender eyes.

"I don't know why that man's so hard on all of you," she commented on Oscar's evil boss and he sighed in reply. "Mostly to Thiago. I mean, he's nothing but a sweetheart," she commented, putting Oscar's pieces of chocolate into the cupcakes.

Oscar snorted. "That's 'cause you haven't seen him when the month's about to finish and he doesn't have the articles ready for the next one," he told her. Thiago Silva was definitely a nice Chief Editor, but whenever he got mad about something, well, you wouldn't want to be caught in the line of fire.

David found it both terrifying and arousing, which Oscar didn't get but he didn't judge. _'David Luiz'_ was unmistakably written on his left shoulder.

"Well, still. Besides, if I didn't come, you would've burnt this place down," she murmured joking, as she put the stray of cupcakes inside the oven. When she turned to him he was giving her a blank look with straight eyebrows. She blew a kiss at him from the other side of the kitchen.

"Have you guys picked the invitation cards paper yet?" Oscar asked later on.

Ludy groaned. "Ugh, God, no. It's harder than we thought, this whole thing. I mean, it's two girls, right? I feel like the world is expecting everything to be pretty and I can't bear that," she exhaled.

It had been three years into the relationship since Ludy got her soul mate mark. When she met his sister Gabrieli, it was all butterflies and rainbows. And the night Gabrieli cried of happiness in front of him, he knew he'd be happy for his little sister for the rest of his life, and you can never ask more from life than that.

"Don't work yourself out on what people might say, Lu," Oscar told her and she gave him a small smile. "Those who care don't matter and those who matter don't care. We just want you two to be happy," she blinked slowly at him and nodded, agreeing. "I mean, after all, she's your soul mate, everything's supposed to be perfect. Not that I know, anyways," Oscar muttered at last and Ludy walked over from the side she was standing to reach over to Oscar.

Her light fingers brushed against his wrist and of the sudden he flinched, jerking away.

"What?"

"It...burned," he lengthened as he drove his eyes down to his left hand. What was once pale and empty was now changing from white to pinkish red to bold black.

 _'Neymar'_ was what it read before his stomach decided that it didn't need the contents it held anymore.

* * *

 

"Is it normal when this happens?" Marcelo asked Dani quietly in front of Neymar's face.

"I read a woman got her soul mates marks and had a heart attack from the shock. It was sad as hell, she waited all her life for that," he said with a sad tone.

They watched Neymar quiet for a minute before his eyelids started fluttering. He groaned as he shifted on the couch and Marcelo and Dani held their breaths.

 His eyes shut open and he went immediately to check his arm. The mark was still there, it was going to be there until his very last day. "Fuck, it wasn't a dream," he cursed.

"You okay, man?" Dani asked. Neymar shook his head, eyes cast down. _Of all the list of things he didn't need..._

They're watching Neymar carefully when the doorbell rings through the whole place.

"I'll go see," he told them, brushing Neymar's knee. 

"Hey, can I see it?" Dani asks softly.

"Yeah, I don't think it hurts anymore," Neymar said, stretching his arm. "Fuck, why did I even faint? Is that normal?"

Dani shrugged. His knowledge in soul mates markings equaled with Marcelo's taste in Spanish football clubs. He ran his thumb across Neymar's wrist and wondered: “Shit, man, what kind of name is Emboaba?”

Neymar shook his head, shrugging annoyed. He didn't want this. He'd never really considered how much he didn't want a romantic soul mate. How much he dreaded forcefully thrusting someone down your throat. It was like some twisted biological version of arranged marriages.

He was going to be in love and, on top of that, he was going to be fucking _happy_ about it.

“Guys, we’ve got our first costumer,” Marcelo said, his head peaking out of the curtain.

“So, go attend them,” Neymar told him, glaring. He had bigger issues right now.

“Hey, don’t bitch at me, I’m not called," Marcelo reached Neymar's wrist to check the name. "— Emboaba...what the hell? That sounds ugly,” he joked. Neymar felt suffocated.

“I know, right,” Dani supplied and they looked at each other. Neymar watched them and rolled eyes. Groaning loudly as he threw his arm over his face.  

“Why are you so stressed about this, man? It’s deemed to happen,” Dani wondered, wholeheartedly.

“You guys have no names on your wrists,” Neymar replied back.

“Well, we have each other’s in our backs, that’s as much as I need. You two are enough of a handful,” Marcelo jokes, dramatically raising his eyebrows. Dani punches him in the shoulder, right where 'Dani Alves' lies written.

Neymar sinks lower in the couch, fightingthe urge to make himself a tiny helpless ball.

“I’ll go back in there,” Marcelo said, squeezing Neymar's knee again.

“Seriously, Ney, what’s the problem?” Dani asked quietly, sitting next to Neymar this time.  

“I don't like this. I don’t feel comfortable with this. Dani, what if they're awful? What if they're…I don’t know, madridistas!" He whined.

“Marcelo’s a madridista—

“What if they're rapists?” Neymar cut him quickly. Dani just rolled his eyes. “You saw that serial killers special with me, man. All those psychos had soulmates. Someone was stuck with those psychos!” Neymar had built a quiet, nice life around the idea of dying with his friends and family, he didn't need a 'special someone'. Especially not one based solely on the fact his body made him like. “I don’t wanna be stuck with some shitty person. This is bullshit,” Neymar finished, shaking his head. 

* * *

 

When the doorbell rings and Ludy goes open the door, Oscar takes another sip of his water, empty stomach-ed.

"I made it here as fast as I could —you didn't tell you were coming here, honey," she said, kissing Ludy briefly. "What happened?" She asked once she went inside the living room and saw Oscar sitting quietly on his couch.

He shifted when he saw her to stretch his arm at her. She frowned and moved closer, grabbing his wrist —he didn't flinch anymore—.

“That’s odd," was the first thing she said." _Great_ , but odd,” she added.

“Why?” Oscar frowned, looking at his mark and then at her.

“Well, you just got one name. I mean, when I got Ludy’s it was with last name and everything,” she explained.

“Well, that’s not exactly rare," Ludy jumped in. "I mean, before I met you I had just ‘Emboaba’. I could be with Oscar right now instead of you," she said, casually. Both of them nod along, Oscar's busy staring at the thin lines of writing.

“Mmmm maybe you just need to meet him, that makes sense,” Gabrieli agreed.

“Him?” Oscar raised his head.

“Neymar’s a boy’s name," she said.

“It’s not. It ends in ‘mar’, no boy’s name ends with mar," he told her, wrinkling his nose.

“What about Omar?” Ludy said. Oscar stared at nothingness.

“So it’s a guy," he concluded.

“Ahhh, let’s not jump into conclusions, yet," Ludy suggested, going inside Oscar's room. "I read an article somewhere about a page that offers you service to find your soulmate," she said, coming back with his laptop in her hands. “I mean it goes from date ideas, help guides about dealing with having more than just one name, or with having none, even flight tickets to all parts of the world for you to personally meet them," she explained, excitedly. Gabrieli sat next to her, smiling too. "You need a registered account, with full name and description, and you’ll enter a system so you can be found easily. Maybe—,”

“This is very great but I’m not going to look for him,” Oscar cut her, killing their mood. A soft smile on his lips.

“What? Why not?” Gabrieli looked at him, almost offended.

“Well for starters, I like where my thing with Eden is going,” he answered. He'd started seeing the pretty, green-eyed, sports columnist guy back at his work three months ago.  Eden Hazard's ass was something he wasn't ready to give up on yet. “I’m not going to let some name on my wrist ruin something that could be very, very nice,” he told them, moving his head up and down.

“Oscar, it's not just a name, it’s your _soulmate_. You’re naturally bound to that person,” Ludy stated.

“Right, just like a man’s naturally to be with a woman and anything else different than that abnormal," he gave them a look. Gabrieli nodded, getting the point. "Look, I’m not a fate type of guy. I like making my own choices," he told them.

“And what if that thing with Hazard doesn’t end well?” Gabrieli asked, raising one long, beautiful eyebrow.

“Well, then I’ll proudly admit nature has beaten me on this one," Oscar answered, carelessly, his smile wide.

“I don’t get it. Why are you happy of getting a name in the first place, then?” Ludy frowned harder.

“Well,because I don’t feel like a freak of nature, anymore," Oscar shrugged. "Back in college all everyone talked about was their soulmates names and finding them and being with them. It was hard enough that I spent my high school years jerking off to Spiderman instead of drinking myself to death in some party. My college years didn’t get easier," he finished, vaguely.

“You were a nerd," it wasn't a question.

“He _still_ is," Gabrieli corrected. "But kinda like a cool-nerd, you know, he played in college’s official soccer team. And his ass is not big but it’s hard as fuck and pretty-roundy,” she told her. Oscar cracked a laugh.

“You’re my sister. Please, don’t talk about my ass, I’ll need therapy," he said, wrinkling his nose.

Gabrieli just shrugged in reply. “I’m just repeating the words around campus," she said to him. "Oscar was a cute catch. Not everyone dared to try and take him,” she finishes.

“Anyways, so you’re glad you’re part of the group of  poor unfortunate souls that fall down on this system of oppression and capitalism,” Ludy asked him. They all laughed.

“Pretty much. I’m just not going to exhaust myself looking for a guy — _person_ , whatever, you know. If it’s meant to happen, then it will, if it doesn’t well, I still have a pretty nice life," he gave them one last big smile.

“When are you heading to work?" Ludy asked.

“Uh, I’m waiting for David to text me he’s done. He asked me to pick him up in some new barbershop they opened near his place," he told her, standing to check his phone. Nothing.

“Let me guess, trying to look nice for the boss to get a raise?” Gabrieli asked from behind him.

“More like to get into his pants, but, yeah,” Oscar replied vaguely, messing around with his phone.

“Well, for what’s worth," Ludy stood slowly and walked over to him. "We're here for you. Whatever you decide,” she told him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah, and when that Belgian tight-ass fucks up, we promise to beat him up for you,” Gabrieli said, behind her fiancé.

“That, too. Sorry, but soulmates are pretty much the only thing that makes life easier,” Ludy agreed.

“What about football?” Oscar raised his eyebrows at them.

Gabrieli and Ludy only but looked at each other.

“Football doesn’t include sex, this does," Gabrieli offered.

Oscar considered that a valid point.

* * *

 

Some thirty minutes after that he was parking in front of the place David instructed him. Some petit, recently-opened barbershop. Why he felt he need to impress Thiago, Oscar didn't know. He let David put his feet on his desk, and Thiago didn't let anyone do that. Oscar thought he was already in for it, but somehow David didn't see it.

He saw him from the corner of his eye, cracking laughs with some big curly haired guy. David poured extroversion out of him like a fountain poured water.

Oscar's smile was replaced with a curios open mouthed expression when he saw a guy coming out from the barbershop with a portable stair. He had tanned skin and bright eyes. Pink lips and a funny hairdo. He was upset about something and Oscar had to fight the growing need of getting out of his car to soothe him. He shook his head and looked away when the guy turned around, feeling eyes on him, god bless the dark windows.

Oscar turned the AC lower because for some reason air went heavier and it was getting hard to breathe. " _Shit_ ," he exhaled. Then inhaled deeply and counted. His body was definitely a mess.

"Sorry," David apologized, opening the door. Oscar started and looked at his friend. Things slowly stopped being blurry. "You okay?" David inquired. Oscar blinked and shook his head a little. He rose to look out the window again and the guy was no where to be seen.

"Yeah, no, I'm fine," he reassured, stepping on the pedal.

### ~·~·~·~

"You hung the signs?" Dani asked, swooping hair off the floor.

"No, this thing is being a little shit," he complained, putting creme on his wrist.

"Why?"

"It just fucking started _itching_ out of nowhere," he said.

Dani looked at Marcelo back behind the cashier.

Weird. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember that the fastest way to get new chapters is to tell me what you think :)


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